What I love this week...

Even the screen cycles through soothing colours....

When I'm sitting hunched and round shouldered straight-backed and posture-perfect at my desk, one of the things that keeps me company (apart from the dog at my feet) is the radio. I've never been able to work in silence - as a child doing my homework I always had to have Scooby Doo/Blue Peter/Rentaghost on in the background...

Music radio is too intrusive I find - plus I nearly always end up with an unwanted earworm while laying in bed at night. So my background noise of choice is talk radio; something I can mentally tune in and out of without too much effort. And the channel I normally choose is Radio 4 (which is, I think, both slightly farty and cool at the same time).

But... I've discovered something this week which has actually worked just as well (and hasn't involved my listening to The Archers tum-tee-tum-te-tum-te-tum, or Gardener's Question Time discussing plum rot, or Woman's Hour talking about the menopause - all of which are very entertaining of course, but sometimes you need a bit of variety eh?!). No, I'm tuning into www.noisli.com - and I love it!

You can control your own soothing background sounds - the pitter patter of raindrops and the wind rustling in the leaves... or tweety birds and the sound of a nearby stream... or a cosy crackling fire with a rumbling thunderstorm. In fact you could have all of those at the same time if you want - and the sound of waves on the sea, crickets chirping at night, and the ambient sound of a coffee shop thrown in too. If you really want!

You can adjust the levels, sending that thunder into the background or bringing up the noise of the rain - tweaking it to your hearts content. Or you can put it on 'random' and it'll cycle through sounds for you.

I had it set on 'thunder-rain-crackling fire' yesterday afternoon which was lovely and cosy (for the middle of July). And right now I'm listening to a forest filled with birds and a gentle breeze. Ahhhh.....and reeeelax.

There, that's my little gift to you for today - enjoy :)

Sarah x